George Ford's long-awaited debut for Sale ended in a bruising 43-19 defeat by already-eliminated Bristol in the Premiership Rugby Cup at Ashton Gate.

Harry Ascherl and Fred Davies took the Bears to seven tries as Gourlay and Tom Roebuck scored late consolations.

Sale were already into the semi-finals and face Exeter away on 12 February.

England fly-half Ford joined Sale at the start of this campaign but had yet to feature having ruptured his Achilles tendon during Leicester's Premiership title win last June.

His side had to win by 29 points to ensure a home semi-final against the Chiefs and while it was a dead rubber for Bristol, the lack of pressure played in their favour.

The floodgates opened when Sale scrum-half Raffi Quirke was sent to the sin-bin for an off-the-ball tackle after five minutes, allowing Callum Sheedy to kick the ball into Sale territory and from a scrum Lloyd eventually ran over in the corner.

Heward then scored an impressive solo try - after dropping an initial kick from Quirke he recovered and sprinted over from his own 22.

Poor Sale passing gifted the hosts possession allowing Lloyd in for his second. Holmes got the fourth as the Bears won a turnover and broke down the wing and Lloyd added the fifth before the break with Bristol completely dominant.

Gourlay pulled one back right on half-time as Sale moved the ball out to the wing, but Ford missed the conversion and it proved his final act before being taken off.

Ascherl kept Bristol's momentum going, tapping down from a rolling maul after a line-out. And when Sale went down to 14 men for the second time, as Harry Thompson dragged down a maul, hooker Davies powered over.

Sale ended the night strongly, helped by Bristol centre James Williams being shown yellow for an offside. Gourlay ran over unopposed and Roebuck dived over three minutes later but it was too late to mount any sort of comeback.

Bristol: Heward, I. Lloyd, Ascherl, Williams, Purdy, Sheedy, Uren; Woolmore (c), Davies, Kloska, Rice, Holmes, Owen, D. Thomas, Tull.

Replacements: Kerr, Turner, Tyack, Pearce, Duncan, Lewis, Lennon, Worsley.

Sin bin: James Williams (70 mins)

Sale: Woodward, Roebuck, Curtis, Hill, Gourlay, Ford, Quirke; Rodd, Taylor, Oosthuizen, Bamber, Groves, Murphy, Dugdale (c), Birchh

Replacements: Thompson, Onasanya, Jones, Barrow, Riley, Cliff, Mills, Bedlow.

Sin bin: Raffi Quirke (5 mins), Harry Thompson (55 mins)

Referee: Andrew Jackson